Tag Archives: lose

The opening day of the baseball season has been filled with historic moments and happenings. Moments like Hank Aaron tying Babe Ruth’s home run record and Ted Williams hitting .449 in all of his opening day game appearances. One of these milestones happened in 1940 and has yet to be repeated on the day that starts the long baseball season, a no hitter.

On April 16, 1940 at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Hall Of Fame pitcher Bob Feller made the history books when he threw his first no hitter. Completing a no hitter as a pitcher is incredible enough but there is another element that makes this feat even more incredible, this is the only occurrence of a no hitter on Opening Day. On that day Feller pitched his Cleveland Indians to a 1-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox. The eventual game winning run was scored by the Indians in the 4th inning when Jeff Heath scored on a Rollie Hemsley hit. The losing pitcher that day was Eddie Smith.

Bob Feller would have two more no hitters in his career before he retired in 1956. Those came in the 1946 and 1951 seasons against the Yankees and Tigers. Bob Feller was inducted into the Baseball Hall Of Fame in 1962. Feller amassed 266 wins and 162 loses and threw 2,581 strikeouts. An interensting note to his career is that he also threw 12 one hit games on top of his three no hitters.

Like many sports fans I love numbers and of course numbers equal stats. So what better way to break down the most anticipated element of the 1st week of NFL action. The focus was on the top 5 rookie Quarterbacks. Those QB’s being Robert Griffin III, Andrew Luck, Branden Weeden, Ryan Tannehill and Russell Wilson. So let’s let the numbers speak for themselves and see how these rookies did in their first NFL games.

Week 2 of the College Football is over just in time for the first Sunday of NFL action. There were some great games and performances on Saturday. Let’s take our weekly look at 2centsworthofsports.com’s top 3 stories of NCAA action.

2 Major Teams Debut And Lose In the SEC

Texas A&M and Missouri made their SEC debuts on Saturday. Much was said and predicted about their debuts in one of College Football’s best conference. Both teams played two of the toughest teams in the SEC, the Florida Gators and Georgia Bulldogs respectively. A&M hosted the number 24th ranked Florida Gators at home and played the Gators in a nail biter. The game was close the entire time and came down to a winning TD for Florida to take the game. The final score was 20-17 for UF over Texas A&M. In Missouri there was another great game that was really close until the 4th quarter where the number 7th ranked Bulldogs pulled away from Missouri, scoring 17 points in the last quarter. The final score was 41-20 in favor of UGA. It was a rough day for both debuting teams, they did however show they belong in the powerhouse conference.

Matt Barkley Throws 6 TD’s In Win Over Syracuse

The 2nd ranked team in the country the USC Trojans came into New York to play Syracuse. The game was not as easy of a win that many expected for the Trojans, winning 49-29 on the road and advancing their record to 2-0. Matt Barkley’s performance is the biggest story of this game. Barkley was 23 for 30 passing with 187 yards and 6 touchdowns. Barkley only threw 1 interception the entire game. Barkley has really developed into the player he was expected to be coming out of high school just a couple of years ago. This was a great statement making performance for the USC quarterback.

#13 Wisconsin Falls To Unranked Oregon State

In what was the biggest upset of a ranked team this Saturday, Oregon State defeated Wisconsin. This game was a low scoring affair with the final score of 10-7 in favor of the Beavers. The star of the game for the Beavers was their QB Sean Mannion who had 276 yards passing and 1 touchdown pass. The Wisconsin Badgers really under played themselves in this road game. The Badgers will have to make some adjustments going ahead into the season if they want to remain in the top 25 rankings. The Beavers could likely end up in the top 25 with this win.

The UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones helped make history this past week. It was not good history by any means. The UFC was forced to cancel their September 1st show in Las Vegas. Jones is completely responsible for this cancellation. When his challenger went down due to injury on Thursday a wild ride began that did not slow down until Friday afternoon.

Jon Jones(Getty Images)

UFC President Dana White was able to get a replacement in Chael Sonnen. Jones would not face Sonnen with only 8 days before the fight. Jones’ Coach Greg Jackson tried to take the blame for not letting his fighter take the fight. With that situation Dana White was forced to cancel the show and blamed Jackson for being a “sport killer”.

The next option for the fight was Lyoto Machida. Machida was due a title shot but not this soon. It was announced that Machida would take the place of Henderson and the fight would be moved to the UFC 152 show on September 22nd in Toronto. Machida later declined and the UFC went after another former champion to fill the spot. That former champion was Shogun Rua, he too declined the fight.

With no other options for a main event fighter for Jones, Dana White chose UFC veteran Vitor Belfort. Belfort accepted and the fight will take place on the UFC 152 show. Belfort has great hands but does not have the genetic gifts that Jones possesses. Belfort is much like a Dan Henderson type fighter in the sense that he is a dangerous veteran that could win but will likely lose. This 24 hour period of insanity is a true low point for the UFC.

Traditionally when a fighter goes down due to injury the replacement is usually accepted by the remaining fighter. Jones did not want to follow suit. Because of this he will drive his appeal down with a fan base that does not really see him as a star yet. Jones is a fan favorite for the hardcore MMA fans but not casual fans who are the ones that really make or break a star and a champion at the ticket window. Jones has gone Heel (a pro wrestling term for bad guy) but he is doing it the wrong way.

MMA has had its share of heels through its history. The most recent being Brock Lesnar and Chael Sonnen. Both of those fighters know what they are doing with their characters and play the role well. They make calculated moves that make themselves the bad guys but still marketable and appealing. Jones does not have the personality or the where with all to be a true heel.

Marketing was stated as a possible reason Jones did not take the fight. Jones was worried that he may not keep his hot streak alive and possibly lose and hurt his selling potential. If that was his concern he would have taken the fight with Sonnen. Even if he lost and came back to another title shot he would be in a better light and position than he is by not taking this fight. Sonnen was the perfect opponent, he had not been training and would be moving up a weight class. Jones on the other hand would be peaking for the fight still and would have had 3 months of training under his belt. Now Jones will be know as the man responsible for destroying UFC 151.

There are many victims from Jones’ decision. The Cable companies who promoted the fight and where counting on their percentage of the PPV numbers. The UFC has also spent a lot of money promoting the fight, they even had a huge billboard at Times Square in New York City. The fighters who will have to wait on a pay day because their fight has to be moved to October or even November. The most hurt will be the fans who have spent their money to fly into Las Vegas, stay in a hotel and wait to have their tickets refunded by the UFC.

Jon Jones will likely become a villain from this situation, which for most fighters could be a positive thing. Not for Jones who needs to be liked. He recently signed a deal with Nike and when it come to merchandise if you are not liked people will not buy you things. Jones has a long road ahead of him, can he shake this situation? Maybe, he could come out on UFC 152 and knock out Belfort and everyone will forget about this like it never happened. It could be something that sticks with him his entire career and effects his earning and drawing potential.